1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet roll producing apparatus for forming a sheet roll by winding up a heat transfer recording sheet, mainly used in forming bar codes, around an outer periphery of a core, and a core supplying apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
The heat transfer recording sheet is presently used for forming bar codes. This recording sheet is also called a donor, wherein structure a hot melt ink layer consisting of a binder of wax, resins, etc., and a color agent is laid on one surface of a thin, plastic film base, for example, of polyester. The ink layer of the recording sheet is overlaid on paper, and the back face of the recording sheet is heated by a heating means such as a thermal head to transfer ink to the paper, thereby effecting printing.
The heat transfer recording sheet as described above is wound up in a roll form around a core, and the sheet roll is used in bar code forming apparatus. Here, the heat transfer recording sheet is wound around the outer periphery of the core to form a sheet roll. The sheet roll of this type is formed in the following manner by a winding apparatus. First, a plurality of cores are arranged at equal intervals on a shaft, and the shaft is rotated by a rotation drive portion to wind the heat transfer recording sheet around the outer peripheries of the cores, thus obtaining sheet rolls. In this case, the cores need to be supplied to the shaft and the plurality of cores need to be arranged at equal intervals on the shaft, but a core supplying apparatus capable of meeting those needs has yet to be developed.